Hostess Of Shadows
by Sakura Bloom
Summary: It is three years in the future, the Digidestined meet a new girl, and an old evil returns for revenge... Alternate timeline to Season 02


Hostess of Shadows  
by Tiny Pikababy  
  
Prologue  
  
The young girl lifted her eyelids, heavy as they were, to reveal soft brown eyes. Her lips fell open, and she took deep, inhaling breaths, her chest rising and falling. The air was cool and crisp around her, and a fog had settled around her. Immediately her hand flew to her neck. She couldn't feel a wound there... but she knew something had happened to her... after that mysterious... man... had approached her.  
  
The pain had started out like a fiery shot to her neck, the shock reverberating up and down her spine, and she had uttered a small moan. She collapsed to her knees, and the blonde man with the sharp, cold, blue eyes and the strange, mysterious clothes vanished into -- a stagecoach??? -- and disappeared. She had been overwhelmed and weakened by the encounter, and slipped into blissful darkness.  
  
But now the pain was a dull throb, flaring up and calming down with every beat of her heart, reminding her that what happened was not a dream, it really happened. Her friends told her she was too trusting... And it was probably true... When the man had approached her, she had not paid attention to his strange features... His small, lanky build, yet large, muscular chest, his peculiar clothing, his pale skin... or the malevolent glint in his expression. She didn't think that perhaps he could have been dangerous... But he had been. Very dangerous; more than she could have guessed.  
  
She stood up, shakily, and started to walk. ~~I deserved it...~~ she told herself. She had thought the way that she had met the man in the dark night, with the fog lifting around them, had been romantic... She saw him like a prince that had found his Cinderella. She felt weak, like she had been drained, but she also felt as if there was some presence with her, making her stronger in some way.  
  
She was not alone.  
  
The wind whispered around her, the noiseless city so late at night offering no warmth to her already frightened mind. Terrified, she quickened her pace toward her home. Looking around her nervously, she began to run. The thick fog surrounded her, reaching her knees as she ran, seeming to come up like waves licking at her legs.  
  
Her eyes flashed a dangerous scarlet as she entered her apartment building... and she didn't know that what had happened that night would unfold into the greatest adventure she would ever have.  
  
She had snuck into the apartment so her mother could not hear her enter at such a late hour. She opened the door to her bedroom ever so softly and walked in. Her younger sister stirred in her bed and turned over, her beautiful, matching brown eyes opening to look at her sleepily, and her wavy, chestnut hair falling in her face.  
  
"Shino...?" her little sister questioned with wonder, pushing back her hair lazily. The thirteen-year-old stretched and yawned loudly, pulling the covers up closer to her. She blinked, her eyelids falling quickly and rising slowly. It was obvious the girl was half asleep.  
  
"Shhh..." the brown-haired sister responded. "It's alright, Ari-chan..." she continued soothingly. "I'm fine. Just go back to sleep now." Shino smiled softly as her sister yawned again and turned her back to the older girl, almost immediately falling back to sleep, her breaths even and rhythmic. Shino turned around, facing the mirror hanging on the wall, worried, pushing her shoulder length hair back from her neck. In the faint reflection that showed up in the dim light, she could see the two tiny red spots on her neck. Glowing with a soft crimson.  
  
"Oh, God..." she whispered. "What's happened to me?"  
  
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Chapter One  
  
**~~THREE YEARS LATER...~~**  
  
"So, you think you can beat me, eh Taichi?" the girl with the soft auburn hair taunted, dribbling the black and white ball in front of her. The brown-haired boy rushed at her, but she gracefully dodged to the side, kicking the ball past him and jogging after it. Taichi grunted and turned around quickly, pivoting on his left foot, and ran after the girl. She quickened her pace as well, until it was a race to the ball. She won, of course, being closer, and kicked the ball a little farther.  
  
This game of soccer had been going on for almost an hour, and after she had kicked the ball, suddenly the girl stopped running, putting her hands on her hips impatiently. "You're not even trying," she said flatly. It took the lean, muscular boy a few seconds to stop. Once he did, he turned to his friend. His best friend.  
  
"I'm sorry," he said sullenly. "I've just got a lot of things on my mind, Sora," he continued, trying to explain his erratic behavior. He knew that he had been acting strange these past few days. And it was true... he did have a lot on his mind. Mainly the fact that the seventeen-year-old boy realized had fallen in love for the first time -- with a girl that he knew loved someone else. He had loved her for a long time, he knew that now... but no matter how strong his devotion was, he only sensed her attraction to another boy. He tried to cope with the revelations, but it was a daunting task. One minute he was taking his new/old crush lightly, laughing with his friend-tuned-love and acting like his usual self, and the next, he was depressed and listless, not wanting to be around anyone. Sora was not the only one to notice the change in him. His parents, his friends, and especially his twelve-year-old sister knew. Hikari was the only one that knew *why* Taichi was acting so strangely.  
  
~~Taichi... you have to go with your heart...~~ He could still hear the young, yet wise, girl's words reverberating in his mind. ~~But what if I can't, Hikari? What if she doesn't love me? What if she rejects me...?~~ His mind kept reminding him of all the bad things that could come from confessing his love, drowning out his heart reminding him of all the good things.  
  
"Taichi!" a young, female voice called. Taichi turned slightly to see Hikari skipping up the sidewalk, Takeru walking beside her, and Yamato walking behind. Hikari was wearing a khaki skirt with a soft magenta tanktop exposinging her arms to the warm August air, and Takeru was wearing a pair of jean-shorts with a short-sleeved blue shirt, his blonde hair combed down and falling in his face. Yamato's hair was combed up in his normal coif, and he was wearing a hunter green wife-beater with a pair of jeans and brown boots. Taichi could feel Sora's arm brush up against his as she stepped even with him.  
  
"Hello, Yamato!" she called. "Takeru, and Hikari!"  
  
"Hey," Yamato responded, as the trio approached the two soccer players. Sora stepped in front of Taichi to stand closer to the taller, blonde-haired boy. Taichi's stomach did a slow flip, and he felt sick. "Where's everyone else?" he asked.  
  
"I don't know," Taichi answered. "Koushiro *should* be here, he was the one who set up this 'appointment' in the first place... We," he said, gesturing to Sora, "came here early to get in a little soccer practice."  
  
"Wonder if Koushiro and Mimi will come together...?" Hikari said in a joking tone of voice. She and Sora giggled conspiratorily.  
  
"What? I don't get it," Takeru said. This put the girls into an even bigger fit of giggles. "Girls..." he muttered, frustrated.  
  
"Ah, you'll never understand them, Takeru," Yamato teased, patting his younger brother's shoulder. "Girls are forever a mystery to guys, right Taichi? ...Taichi?"  
  
Taichi didn't respond right away -- he had drifted off into his own world. Suddenly he snapped back into reality. "Right!" he said, adding a laugh. "We'll never understand just what a girl is thinking..."  
  
"Hey!" a voice called from the other side of the soccer field. The five adolecents turned around and looked to see their older friend walking toward them.  
  
"Jyou!" the teens called, waving to the tall, blue-haired boy. He met them in the center of the soccer field, where he recieved a hug from Hikari. "But Jyou," she said, "we thought that you couldn't make it back! What happened?"  
  
"Well," he said, smiling, "You can go to college and be around stuffy professors and equally stuffy students anytime, but being with your friends, that's special!"  
  
"He just didn't want to be left out..." Yamato whispered to Taichi. Taichi shot him a cold look and ignored the statement. "What's up with you, Taichi?" he whispered again, this time a little angry. "You've been pissed off at the world for the last couple weeks and we'd love to know what's wrong."  
  
"Nothing," Taichi whispered back, a firm tone in his voice. "Nothing's wrong with me, now just leave me alone." He turned back to Jyou. "Did Koushiro tell *you* what this whole meeting was about? 'Cause he didn't tell us anything. For all we know, he wants to have a tea party."  
  
"Except for the fact his voice sounded like he was terrified," Jyou answered, "I don't know a thing." He looked up at the sky. "Looks like rain," he mused. "Figures." At that point the group heard a clap of thunder and it started to sprinkle. Over the course of the next few minutes, it rained harder, pelting the kids with needle-like drops of water.  
  
"Sorry we're late!" Koushiro called, running toward the others. Mimi was beside him, holding his jacket over her head. Hikari and Sora giggled. "We left early, but we were detained on the way here... and the weather didn't help either."  
  
"So what did you call us here for, anyway?" Yamato asked impatiently.  
  
The red-headed boy looked slightly annoyed. "This," he announced, holding out an object. The group gasped. It was a Crest.  
  
~*~  
  
"Shi-chan!" the sixteen year old girl called. "Shino! Time to get up!" She pulled her soft, long hair into a ponytail and tied it. She turned to see her older sister crawl out of her bed and walk into the bathroom where she was standing in front of the mirror.  
  
She looked terrible. Her face was pale, and her lips were bright red. Her eyes, usually lively and beautiful, looked bloodshot and tired, and her hair was laying limp against her face. "Ari-chan, I don't feel so well," she moaned.  
  
Ari turned around and faced her older sister. "You don't look so great either," she said, her matching brown eyes bright with concern. "Get back in bed, right now!"  
  
It had been three years since Shino had been attacked by the mysterious man in the street, but it was the same every August since then -- she had fallen violently ill, wracked with high fever and other symptoms... and it always lasted for two weeks and then disappeared... But she seemed weaker after every bout with the illness... and this time she wasn't sure she was going to make it.  
  
"I have to go now," Ari said, tucking the covers around her older sister and putting a damp, cold rag on her forehead. "You try and get some rest now, hmm?" Shino nodded, her eyes wide and glassy, and Ari turned around and started to walk out of the room when she kicked a small object. Her eyes shifted down to see a small electronic device, which looked like a square with the corners cut off. "Shi-chan, where did you get -- ?" she began as she turned back to her sister, but Shino was already asleep. "Hmm," Ari mumbled, picking up the object. It displayed the time. "Uh-oh, gotta go!" She clipped the device to her belt and ran out of the room, shutting the door. She could swear she could see red glowing from underneath the door... but this was not the time to worry about it.  
  
After Ari shut the door of the apartment, Shino sat straight up in the bed, her shoulder-length brown hair floating around her and her eyes glowing crimson red. "Finally," she purred, her feminine voice morphing, now oozing with danger, cruelty, and a conniving sexuality. "Back in Heighton View Terrace after all of these years... But this time I will win." She cackled evilly and threw back her head, howling with evil laughter.  
  
~*~  
  
The six other Digidestined stared at the silver Crest, ignoring the rain that was falling around them. The symbol in the middle looked like the figure of a bird, with wings and a beak on the head. The bottom did not have feet, rather just a triangular tail-like edge. "A - a Crest!" Sora gasped.  
  
"Right," Koushiro responded simply. He tossed up and caught the Tag and Crest in his hand. "Which means that there is yet another one of us."  
  
"But... but..." Taichi stammered, trying to gather his thoughts, "It's been three years since we saved the Digiworld," he declared. "Why would another Digidestined be joining us now???"  
  
"Maybe we'll get to see the Digimon again!" Hikari blurted excitedly.  
  
"Maybe," agreed Koushiro. "I'm not quite sure what this Crest means concerning the eight of us... but I think I know what the symbol means. I analyzed it in my computer, and I believe it to be the Phoenix."  
  
"I remember the legend of the Phoenix," Joe said. "It said that the Pheonix lived for 500 years and then burned. After that it rose from its ashes and lived again... But I wonder what kind of trait that could mean?"  
  
Suddenly the Crest began to glow a brilliant silver light. They all gasped and turned toward the road that was adjacent to the park where they were all standing. Yamato, who was closest to the edge of the park, started to run as fast as he could, yelling, "Wait! Stop!"  
  
There was a teenage girl walking in the street below.  
  
"Well, this was a lot easier than finding you," Taichi muttered to Hikari, who simply shrugged her slim shoulders.  
  
~*~  
  
Ari stopped dead in her tracks when the little device she had picked up and placed on her hip started to glow mysteriously. Suddenly she heard someone calling to her: "Wait! Stop!" She whipped her head to the side to see a guy running toward her, her hair falling all around her shoulders. The boy, who looked about her age, had wild blonde hair that jutted out everywhere, and gorgeous blue eyes.  
  
The boy scooted to a stop in front of her, and breathlessly tried to talk to her. "Hi..." he breathed. He then started to laugh. "Uh... I don't know how to say this except to just say it: we -- my friends and I -- need to talk to you about something very important."  
  
Ari stared at the handsome guy, but finally came back to her senses. She smiled flirtatiously. "Not the greatest pickup line I've ever heard," she replied, wagging her finger teasingly from side to side. "But you're cute, so that makes up for it."  
  
The boy chuckled. "I guess that did seem kinda strange. But I was serious. This is more than just popping a pickup line. But I should introduce myself. My name is Yamato Ishida." Suddenly a girl with semi-long auburn hair appeared at his side, staring at Ari. "And this is Sora Takenouchi."  
  
Six other teens around their age fell in around them, all staring at her like the first two had done. "Yama-kun," the auburn-haired girl started sweetly. Ari noticed that the brunette boy beside her -- also adorable, but not in the same way as the first boy that approached her -- scowled. "Aren't you going to introduce the rest of us?"  
  
"Right," Yamato said. "This is Taichi Kamiya," he said, referring to the brown-haired boy she had noticed before, and then to a younger girl with long brown hair "and beside him is his sister Hikari. Next to her is my brother Takeru, and next to him is Koushiro Izumi." His brother was about the same age as Hikari, and definately had the adorable looks and charm of his older brother. Koushiro was a short redhead, and in one of his hands was a glowing silver necklace, and in the other was the hand of the girl standing next to him. Ari looked at this girl, who was much taller than Koushiro, and beautiful. She had trendy clothes on, and lots of makeup, and her hair was just so. She looked as if she could be a model. "Sensei's girlfriend -- " (Ari realized he was using the term sensei jokingly) (Koushiro snorted and released the girl's hand) " -- is Mimi Tachikawa. Last but not least, is the only adult in our group, Jyou Kido." The last was a tall boy who looked about her sister's age. He was cute in a shy sort of way, with glasses and semi-short blue hair that was rather tame compaired to his companions: Yamato, who's hair was a perfect gelled style, every piece having a place, and Taichi, who had an adorable mop of hair that looked like he had rolled out of bed (but it was a good style for the casual-looking cutie). All of these teens looked nice in their own ways... but Ari still had no idea what they wanted with her.  
  
"Uh..." she said, "Nice to meet you all... My name is Ari Tamidoushi... But I still don't know why you all surrounded me in the sidewalk in the middle of the pouring rain," she continued, holding up her hands to catch some of the falling raindrops around her.  
  
"It's because of this," Koushiro interjected, holding up the glowing silver necklace. In the middle of the plastic-like pendant, she saw the glowing form of a bird -- an eagle, she thought. "And that," he added, pointing to the glowing object on her hip. "This is your crest, and that is a Digivice."  
  
She looked at him, confused. "But, what does that mean?"  
  
"It means that you're one of us," the girl called Mimi said in a light and airy voice.  
  
"You're a Digidestined," Taichi said with a tone of finality.  
  
~*~  
  
Shino chanted an incantation over and over again, and finally the room glowed with silvery red. She laughed evilly, the laugh falling from her lips as smoothly as silk. "OPEN THE GATE, TO MY DESTINY!" she cried, her eyes burning with unholy red light. A rift in space and time was torn with those words, and a portal opened between the real world and the Digital world, allowing monsters to start pouring in at Shino's command. "Come forth my minions, soon your dark purpose shall be fulfilled."  
  
She lifted her hands to the air. "Digidestined, you're MINE!!!"  
  
"I AM THE QUEEN OF THE UNDEAD!"  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 


End file.
